Publication Date: January 31, 1997

Related articles: VRML: Creating New Realities

A Few VRML Tips for Businesses

Nathan Wagoner, of Duck Soup Information Services in Alexandria, Pa., offers these tips for businesses considering a move toward VRML, or Virtual Reality Modeling Language, for their Web site or other forms of communication.

• Do consider going 3-D with a Web site, or at least parts of it, if you bill your business as residing on the cutting edge of technology. Site visitors will begin to expect 3-D quality graphics from you.

• Do assess a number of Web sites before deciding how far into the virtual world to bring your company. Use ducksoup.net, thepalace.com and Howard Rheingold's "Brainstorms" page at www.well.com/user/hlr/ as springboards to other sites.

• Do look at VRML-based programs as a means of cutting down travel and meeting expenses for your company. You can bring together personnel from all corners of the world without ever buying a plane ticket.

• Do consider VRML as a way of representing complex data in a 3-D model, rather than using pages of text for a description.

• Do assess the whole range of VRML products before settling on the best one to meet your corporate needs. You may discover that you need several different products.

• Don't use synchronous communication as a means of trying to rally support around a product or product-line. Interactive communication has evolved into a social medium that doesn't translate well into an advertising tool.

Compiled by Sue Mellen

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Nathan Wagoner is a featured speaker at DCI's Internet Expo. For program or registration details, please see our latest online brochure.

For more on this topic, please see VRML: Creating New Realities.

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